The New York Islanders announced Sunday that center Frans Nielsen has been placed on injured reserve with a hand injury. It is retroactive to Feb. 8, the Islanders’ final game before the Olympic break.

The 29-year-old Nielsen, who, according to Capgeek.com, is in the second year of a four-year contract worth a cap hit of $2.75 million, has appeared in 60 games for the Islanders this season. He’s scored 18 goals and has 43 points.

Islanders general manager Garth Snow sounded off on the Tavares injury, clearly not happy with the IOC and IIHF.

“Are the IIHF or IOC going to reimburse our season ticket holders now?” Snow asked. “It’s a joke. They want all the benefits from NHL players in Olympics and don’t want to pay when our best player gets hurt.”

In terms of the playoffs, they were pretty much done before the break anyway. Obviously losing the #s 3, 26 & 45 scorers in the NHL is going to take a lot of the starch out of the offense. It will, however, give Nelson, Strome and Lee a chance to show what they can do.